The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-219671, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a quarter vent duct which is installed in a vehicle body and adapted to conduct pressure regulation and ventilation inside a compartment.
An automobile is generally provided with a quarter vent duct for conducting pressure regulation and ventilation inside a compartment. This quarter vent duct includes, as shown in FIG. 4 for example, a frame body 100 made of hard material and having at least one opening 101, and at least one valve body 102 of soft material which is fixed to one side of the opening 101 and adapted to open or close the opening 101 with a swinging motion. The quarter vent duct is attached to a vehicle body 200 in side areas of a rear bumper at a back side thereof. When the valve body 102 swings outward, air in the compartment is guided out from the opening 101, and when the valve body 102 has closed the opening 101, invasion of dust or water from an exterior of the vehicle is prevented.
In order to realize the above described function to a maximum degree, sealing performance between the frame body 100 and the vehicle body 200 is important, and it has been customarily performed that sealing material 300 such as sponge, for example, is interposed between the frame body 100 and the vehicle body 200 to effect sealing. However, there has been such a problem that in order to interpose the sealing material 300 which is a separate body, a large number of parts are required, and assembling workability may be deteriorated. Moreover, the sealing material 300 has to be bonded to a peripheral edge part of the frame body 100 along its entire circumference by means of a double faced attachment tape or the like. On such occasions, the sealing performance may be locally deteriorated due to a dimensional error or a positioning error in some cases.
Under the circumstances, there has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. JP-A-06-297503 of unexamined patent application, a method of integrally molding a seal member of soft material on a peripheral edge part of a frame body, by moving a slide core in a state where the frame body is remained in a mold after molding of the frame body. According to this method, the seal member having high dimensional accuracy and positioning accuracy can be formed integrally with the frame body only by moving the slide core. As the results, the sealing material such as sponge or the like will be unnecessary, and the number of parts can be reduced. When the quarter vent duct obtained in this manner is assembled to a vehicle body, the frame body may be fixed to the vehicle body with the seal member pressed onto the vehicle body. By doing so, the seal member can be fixed to the vehicle body in an elastically contacted state, and hence, excellent sealing performance can be obtained.
However, according to the Japanese Patent Publication No. JP-A-06-297503, the seal member is formed only in a back face side of the frame body. For this reason, in case where the frame body has a deflection or is low in the dimensional accuracy, an elastic contact force of the seal member will be irregular in a circumferential direction of the frame body, which will lead to a decrease of the sealing performance in some areas. Further, in case where a positional error occurs while the frame body is attached to the vehicle body, the sealing performance will be deteriorated due to difference in shapes between a surface of the vehicle body and a surface of the frame body.
Under the circumstances, it has been generally conducted that a seal lip which projects at an angle from the peripheral edge part of the frame body in a direction of its outer circumference is integrally molded. However, in this case too, in case where the frame body has a dimensional error or a positional error when installed, the elastic contact force of the seal lip will be irregular, and the sealing performance will be deteriorated. Still further, there has been such disadvantage that in an area to which a larger force is applied, the seal lip may accidentally come off from the frame body.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the invention is, in a quarter vent duct in which a seal member having a lip portion is integrally bonded to a peripheral edge part of a frame body, to improve sealing performance of the lip portion, and at the same time, to prevent the seal member from coming off. In order to solve the above described problems, a quarter vent duct according to the present invention comprises a quarter vent duct adapted for an automobile comprising:
a duct body including a frame body of a hard material having at least one opening and at least one valve body of a first soft material which is fixed to one side of the opening and adapted to open or close the opening; and
a seal member of a second soft material which is provided at a peripheral edge part of the frame body so as to be elastically contacted with a vehicle body of the automobile, the seal member including
a joint portion integrally bonded to the peripheral edge part of the frame body,
an extended portion in a plate-like shape which is extended from the joint portion outward of the frame body, and
a lip portion which projects from the extended portion at an angle more than 90xc2x0 and less than 180xc2x0 so as to be elastically contacted with the vehicle body.
It is desirable that the frame body and the seal member are formed by integral molding in which the frame body is arranged in a mold so as to mold the frame body, and that the joint portion has at least one turned back portion which is turned back from a front face side of the peripheral edge part of the frame body to a back face side thereof.